Crepes Suzette (1896 and more)

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   COMMENTS ON ETYMOLOGY, March 2001, pp. 16-17, reprints some "crepes suzette" items that were previously posted here.  I'll add three new citations to that.

LIFE A LA HENRI:
BEING THE MEMORIES OF HENRI CHARPENTIER
by Henri Charpentier and Boyden Sparkes
Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York
1934
Reprinted by the Modern Library Food
Ruth Reichl, series editor
Introduction by Alice Waters (Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA--ed.)
Modern Library, New York
247 pages, paperback, $13.95
2001

   Chapter VIII, "THE PRINCE OF WALES AND MADEMOISELLE SUZETTE," is on pages 54-57.  I won't type it all here because the book should be in your local bookstore (online or bricks & mortar).

   From ALONG THE WINE TRAIL (c. 1935) by NEW YORK SUN food editor G. Selmer Fougner, part three, pg. 113:

_The Truth About Crepes Suzette_
   Much nonsense has been written about the famous French pancake dish known as Crepes Suzette, and to the Wine Trail desk in New York alone have come claims from at least twenty alleged discoverers of that delicacy.  It remained, however, for the S. S. Normandie to serve them to this writer as he never had them before.
   Some of the afore-mentioned claims have been utterly ridiculous and without the slightest foundation of fact.  Thus, certain widely publicized chefs have dated their so-called "discovery" years after it was actually made.
   The chef at the Ritz in Paris is authority for the statement that Crepes Suzette have appeared on menus in France for close to fifty years.  As to the recipes, they are usually the same, copied one from the other, with merely a slight alteration in the selection of liqueurs with which the sauce is made.
   But the Crepes Suzette of the Normandie are in a class by themselves.
(Lengthy recipe follows--ed.)

   From LE POT-AU-FEU (Paris), April 1896, pg. 103, col. 2:

_Crepes Suzette_
   LES crepes Suzette out ete imaginees, il y a quelques annees, au restaurant Paillard.  Ce sont des crepes tres fines que l'on assaisonne a table, sur un rechaud, avec une sauce composee de beurre, cognac, jus de citron, zeste et jus d'oranges.  C'est un excellent entremets de dejeuner permettant a la maitresse de maison d'utiliser quelque jolie piece d'orfevrerie : rechaud, plat, bol.
   Detail a apprecier : les crepes, pour etre bonnes, n'ont pas besoin d'etre servies une a une, a mesure qu'elles sortent de la poele.  On peut apporter sure la table huit ou dix crepes empilees les unes sur les autres, et, en moins de temps qu'il va nous en falloir pour expliquer la chose, la maitresse de maison les distribue aux convives apres les avoir rechauffees et aromatisees comme nous allons l'indiquer.
   Notre recette a ete experimentee et redigee d'apres les indications qu'a bien voulu nous fournir l'inventeur, M. Mourier.
   On remarquera que la pate des crepes est un peu plus compliquee que celle des fameuses <<crepes du Mardi-Gras>>, sans beurre dans la poele, dont la recette a ete publiee dans le _Pot-au-Feu_, Il u'u a pas lieu de s'etonner de cette difference, car la pate pour crepes comporte plusieurs for mules (Pg. 104, col. 1--ed.) combinees chacune en vue d'un avantage particulier.
   _Proportions_
Pour une douzaine de crepes:
   POUR LA PATE
125 grammes de farine fine;
1 oeuf entier, tres frais;
3 jaunes,
2 decilitres de lait;
5 grammes de sel;
5 -- de sucre;
30 -- de beurre fin;
2 cuillerees a cafe cognac;
2 cuillerees a cafe orgeat.
   On peut remplacer le cognac et l'orgeat par memes proportions de kirsch et de marasquin.
   POUR LA SAUCE
60 grammes de beurre tres fin;
1/2 decilitre de Cognac;
Les jus d'une orange;
1 cuilleree a cafe de jus de citron;
2 morceaux de sucre frottes sur le zeste de l'orange.
   POUR LA POELE
40 grammes de beurre.
(...)

--------------------------------------------------------
   Ruth Reichl is the editor of GOURMET magazine and was a food critic of the NEW YORK TIMES.  The books in the Modern Library Food series all have new introductions by food scholars.  The three other books in the series are:

CLEMENTINE IN THE KITCHEN (1948, 1949, 1963; 2001) by Samuel Chamberlain, 270 pages, $13.95.  ("Les chiens chauds" is in an interesting "hot dog" passage on page 57--ed.)

COOKING WITH POMIANE (1976; 2001) by Edouard de Pomiane, 283 pages, $13.95.

PERFECTION SALAD: WOMEN AND COOKING AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY (1986; 2001) by Laura Shapiro, 275 pages, $13.95.